Some Tidbits About George Miller's JUSTICE LEAGUE (Cancelled)
During a recent podcast comic book artist Steve Skroce reflected on a time in his past when he was working as a concept artist on George Miller's cancelled Justice League film.
I imagine most comic fans remember Warner Bros now abandoned Justice League movie that was written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) and was to be directed by George Miller (Mad Max). Around this same time this film was getting going, director Christopher Nolan was developing (ALSO at Warner Bros) the sequel to the franchise rehabilitating Batman Begins with Christian Bale returning as Batman and featuring The Joker (Ledger was not cast yet) as the film's main villain. Which means we would have has 2 different actors playing Bruce Wayne/Batman as the same time. One of the many reasons that Nolan would go on to assist getting this movie cancelled. Though, the biggest reasons this film didn't get made was that the budget soared when Australia changed their film rebates, and because of the impending writer's strke, which would've eliminated the ability for script changes.
Justice League: Mortal was going to feature the following cast: Armie Hammer as Batman, DJ Cotrona as Superman, Adam Brody as The Flash, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Common as Green Lantern, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman, Teresa Palmer as Talia Al Ghul, Zoe Kasan as Iris Allen, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter and Jay Baruchel as the villain of the flick, Maxwell Lord.
This Justice League film was deep into pre-production. Sets were being built and they had even gone as far as costume fittings for the principle actors. Comic book artist Steve Skroce was part of the art department. Steve has quite the resume, as he has been the “go to” storyboard artist for The Wachowski siblings for many years. Having worked with them on the Matrix 1 and 2, V for Vendetta, Speed Racer, Ninja Assassin, Cloud Atlas and the upcoming Jupiter’s Ascending.
He was recently a guest on The Word Ballon Podcast with John Siuntres (Justice League comments start at the 98-minute mark). Steve went on to talk about this cancelled Justice League flick and his role as the storyboard artist. He said he was with George Miller in Australia for about 6 months as they were planning to film in Sydney. This was quite the experience and he said he was “geeking out” all the time as he is such a big fan of 1980’s movies, especially ones done by George Miller. Steve said, “He was invited to the costume tests because he was a comic book guy”. He stated that the “costumes for Batman and Superman and were very much what we saw with The New 52” and that Wonder Woman was pretty standard with more detail instead of flat gold and had the Alex Ross skirt”. He also talked about the villain Maxwell Lord and how “Jay Baruchel was playing it nerdy, had an empire of Kingdom Come restaurants that were featured as a plot to infect the world with some sort of virus and that he was obsessed with the superhero’s” He went on to add that “ it was very faithful to the comics at the time, very DCU. Ultimately I think its good that it didn’t come out as there were some parts that were cool that they got right and there were some things that people were going to hate. Some of it was very aimed at kids“. These are some fascinating details from someone who was actively involved in the production.
From the bottom left- director George Miller, Jay Baruchel(Maxwell Lord), Hugh Keays-Byrne(Martian Manhunter). Next row from left- Santiago Cabrera(Aquaman), Adam Brody(The Flash), Teresa Palmer(Talia al Ghul), stuntman Greg Van Borssum(facebook page, producer Barrie Osborne(Lord of the Rings). Armie Hammer(Batman) is at the very back with D.J. Cotrona(Superman) directly in front of him.
KevMerica
**Special thanks to @nailbitter111 **
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